Favorite of 2014: Basketball league builds brotherhood of black role models

Members of the Sports Talk Basketball Association wait for the games to begin. (Photo by Raina J. Johnson)

Growing up in the Havenwoods neighborhood, my older brother and I would shoot hoops regularly at McGovern Park. To me basketball was fun; everybody from the neighborhood was there. Sometimes it wasn’t about the game – if you had a slipped chain on your bike, you could find somebody to fix it. If you needed advice about a crush, or a bully at school, someone could help. We made up some rules as we went along, playing until the streetlights came on. Skill level didn’t matter as much as drive and determination.

Covering the story about a group of mainly African-American men who formed a basketball league based on a rivalry on social media immediately threw me back to my days at McGovern Park. I’m thankful to Michael Hutchinson and the other participants for giving me a chance to tell their story.